@underlap@fosstodon.org
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

underlap

@underlap@fosstodon.org

Husband, father, grandfather, follower of Jesus, but very much a work in progress.

Retired software developer, visiting lecturer, IETF editor. Likes repairability. BTW I use arch.

Hobbies: reading, blogging, running, sailing.

Delighted to live in Winchester, UK. Involved in a local church.

Banner: Derwent Water
Profile picture: Dorset coast

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ben, to random
@ben@werd.social avatar

I open sourced a rubric for any organization to use when they're choosing technologies to use - whether it's an online service, a software library, or desktop software. I invite comments and contributions. https://werd.io/2023/a-rubric-for-technology-assessment

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@ben Other criteria that may be worth considering are:

  • accessibility
  • open standards compliance
  • regulatory compliance
  • open source usage (esp. WRT the next bullet)
  • ease of migration to alternatives ("vendor lockin")
  • interoperation with other relevant software or systems
  • i18n support
  • vendor's treatment of its workers
  • vendor's record of sponsorship of, or contribution to, upstream (F)OSS projects
underlap, to random
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

Pleasantly surprised my Fairphone 4 has a compass (not all phones do). Also, good that the latest update included Android 13.

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@ffaff When hiking and unsure of the orientation of the map (paper or other). I have a poor sense of direction. I've also used a compass for navigating when sailing.

timbray, to random
@timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

Pleasantly surprised at the social-media traffic around :

  • Not seeing anyone trying to justify Hamas’ theofascist thuggery
  • A little bit of pro-Bibi kill-all-the-Gazans snarling
  • A whole lot of realism - Hamas are assholes, but let’s not pile another war crime on top of theirs, and Gaza is prison with abusive jailers, and the current Israeli govt is full of genocide-curious stone racists
underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@timbray Yeah, same in the UK. Hamas's attack was reprehensible, but we shouldn't be supporting a likely completely non-proportional response by Israel.

underlap, to random
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

The view from our Airbnb in Gmund am Tegernsee (in Bavaria) is as lovely as ever. But today's the day they repair the railway line. 😂

Scenic video of the lake Tegernsee with the Alps in the background, but with heavy machinery noise.

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

The post I'm replying to failed to upload to the server, but it appears on my timeline and was put back into draft status. Can anyone else see it?

ben, to random
@ben@werd.social avatar

Whew. I'd had a little writer's block on the book since a check-in with my writing mentor last week - now unblocked. I made some really good progress this morning. In the process, I deleted a lot of words, which, like deleting code, is actually generally a good thing.

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@ben Omit needless words, eh? (Strunk and White)

ben, to journalism
@ben@werd.social avatar

This is still a widely-held sentiment. What do we need to build for this not to be true? https://dankennedy.net/2023/10/07/x-twitter-may-be-terrible-but-its-still-the-go-to-place-for-certain-types-of-conversations/?utm_source=werd.io&utm_campaign=mastodon&utm_channel=mastodon

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@ben Widespread adoption of Mastodon.

ben, to random
@ben@werd.social avatar

Everything interesting I've ever built has started as a side project, with plenty of contemplative, generative time to really figure out what it was.

I'm a parent of a one year old now. He takes priority. But how can I also make some of this time for myself? Or should I accept it's not happening until he's a little older?

Parents who do creative work, how have you handled this?

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@ben Back in the day "side projects" were known as skunkworks and were something that had to be creatively factored into one's day job. Might still work.

pythonbynight, to random
@pythonbynight@fosstodon.org avatar

Is anyone following me that is good at maths? Had a friend send this to my wife, and apparently I'm not good at maths...

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@pythonbynight @josh Isn't e determined by the intersection of two circles for the sides of lengths 24 and 33?

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@josh @pythonbynight I used that to get four simultaneous equations in four variables (a, b, c, x). Solving for a gave two possible solutions (thanks to the quadratic terms). Neither of these solutions fitted the diagram: one was much too short and the other too long. So there appears to be a contradiction. My suspicion is that this is one of those geometric paradoxes that is based on a badly drawn figure. Right?

nirik, to random
@nirik@fosstodon.org avatar

What is the logic behind people who call you, get voice mail, then don't leave a message and... call you again (repeat several times in a row some cases).

Do they think you just didn't get to the phone in time? That you will really want to answer it if they call again? That they think you will guess it's important and answer if they call back a few times in a row?

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@joel @nirik Similar in the UK.

timbray, to random
@timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

In which I compare the search features of Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2023/10/02/Social-Search

Threads search for "dark matter"
Mastodon search for "dark matter"

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@timbray So hard scientists prefer Mastodon. I'd love to know what the demographics are for Mastodon (and Bluesky and Threads).

timbray, to LGBTQ
@timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

I, a straight person, have a question. I'm talking about homophobia in a draft blog piece, and what’s a good choice of word for the people that homophobes dislike and abuse? Has it got to the point where “queer” is respectful and appropriate? Is “LGBTQ” better? “Gender-diverse”? (I think I’m correct to think that “homophobe” has grown to include anti-trans and gender-related bigotries generally?) Who has written a really good essay on the subject? Thanks in advance.

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@timbray My pedantic question is does LGBTQIA+ = LGBTQ+ and if so, are they also equal to L+?

danyork, to random
@danyork@mastodon.social avatar

Not a happy way to end an otherwise good day. I had many applications open and my iMac wasn’t being very responsive, not even to let me kill off apps. So eventually I gave up and held down the power button to force it to restart. Now when it restarts, the progress bar gets about halfway across… and just stays there. 🙁

I have tried restarting it again and.. same thing.

Any suggestions from other iMac or Mac users?

(It’s a 2017 iMac running IOS 13.something)

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@danyork Try resetting the NVRAM https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/How_to_reset_NVRAM_and_PRAM_on_a_Mac

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@danyork Too bad. I guess a nuclear option is to reinstall macOS.

ben, to Futurology
@ben@werd.social avatar

This presumably means that the Turf Tavern is the best student pub in the world. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-09-27-oxford-university-world-s-top-university-record-eighth-year?utm_source=werd.io&utm_campaign=mastodon&utm_channel=mastodon

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@ben I went to Oxford and the Turf Tavern was atmospheric but, at the time, not that popular. The open fire in the yard was pretty good in winter though IIRC.

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@ben The Lamb and Flag and The Eagle and Child were better IMO, especially because of the association with The Inklings.

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@ben It was 40-odd years since I was there, but Jericho did have some good pubs.

underlap, to random
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

‘We are just getting started’: the plastic-eating bacteria that could change the world
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/plastic-eating-bacteria-enzyme-recycling-waste?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

ocramz, to haskell
@ocramz@sigmoid.social avatar

incredible how much cruft accumulates in a 10 year old project

churned, composting, repurposed code

but still with we can do large internal refactors while resting assured that the interface behaviour doesn't change.

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@ocramz What gives you that assurance? Behaviour-preserving refactoring tools, a good test suite (not unique to Haskell), or what?

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@ocramz Yeah, I agree that these make coding less error-prone.

timbray, to random
@timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

Data from the glamorous Euro-satellite “Gaia” is used to estimate the Milky Way’s mass… and comes up with a figure that’s an order of magnitude off from consensus estimates! (10¹¹ solar masses vs 10¹²)

“nearly every astronomer rolling our collective eyes…”: https://tritonstation.com/2023/09/19/recent-developments-concerning-the-gravitational-potential-of-the-milky-way-i/

Astrophysics is by a wide margin the most entertaining spectator science.

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@timbray Oh only one order of magnitude out. Pretty close!

underlap, to random
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

Wondering why the is so popular. I enjoy my M1 MacBook, but I prefer a Fairphone to an iPhone, a Linux desktop for coding, and I don't see the point of wearing a watch (let alone one that troubles me with notifications). What am I missing?

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@loshmi You're right, but I wonder how many people have an iPhone as their only computing device. E.g. I didn't see many iPhones when I went to Uganda.

danyork, to threads
@danyork@mastodon.social avatar

So Meta's gets capability. Just tested it out and it works as you would expect.

Of course, implementing search on a centralized system should be a relatively simple matter.

Much harder in our decentralized Fediverse!

underlap,
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

@danyork What would I expect? Some unhelpful algorithmic search order with ads and promoted rubbish? Or maybe that will come later. 😉

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